Textron Marine & Land Systems' offices will remain in Slidell for at least another year.

The Textron Inc. division said Wednesday that it has a lease extension through May 31, 2014, with two one-year options, pending approval by the Slidell City Council. The current lease ends in May.

The division makes and supports military vehicles, ships and boats. It has leased offices from Slidell since 2007. Its factory is in eastern New Orleans; it has an assembly plant and a warehouse in Slidell.

Terms of the extension were not disclosed in the company's news release.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded a $1 million grant to the Port of Greater Baton Rouge to rebuild a rail line at the marine terminal which was damaged by Mississippi River flooding in spring 2011.

The Advocate reports the money was part of a $200 million appropriation Congress made to help communities that received a major disaster designation in fiscal 2011.

The two-lane stretch of Louisiana Highway 1 that cuts through the marshes of south Lafourche Parish is the only road to Port Fourchon, the oil and gas hub that serves 90 percent of deepwater petroleum operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

When the highway is closed because of high water, as it was for three days during Hurricane Isaac, the industry takes an economic hit.

But, as The Advocate reports, each new storm brings with it the fear that the highway may wash away.

Ormet Corp. plans to lay off 200 people at its alumina plant in Ascension Parish because of reduced demand caused by rising power rates in Ohio.

The Advocate reports Ormet issued 60-day federal layoff notices Tuesday for the plant in the town of Burnside, which produces the primary raw material used in aluminum production. This comes two weeks after Ormet said it would reduce operations at its aluminum smelter in Hannibal, Ohio, which uses the Burnside alumina.

Ormet reopened the shuttered Burnside alumina plant in late 2011, after the plant had been closed for five years.

Bollinger, based in Amelia, said Wednesday that the B. No. 250 tank barge delivered to Bouchard, based in Melville, N.Y., is a manned ocean service, clean oil barge measuring 317-feet, six inches long. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. will spend $180 million to build four vessels in anticipation of increased demand for oilfield supply vessels in the Gulf of Mexico and Latin America.

New Orleans CityBusiness reported Tuesday that the Covington-based company plans to exercise the first four of 48 options to build the supply vessels, which will be delivered in late 2014 and early 2015.

The plans are part of a building program the company launched in November. Hornbeck already has 16 new vessels under construction at U.S. shipyards.